31 January 2017, Addis Ababa – During the 28th Ordinary Session of the Summit of the African Union (AU), African Heads of State and Government officially launched the 2017 AU Theme of the Year, ‘Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through Investments of the Year’. In a first of its kind activity for the AU, young African designers would have the opportunity to enter a contest that sought to identify a logo that would best represent the annual theme of the year. In the end, 22 year old Quentine Nyoni from Zimbabwe emerged as the successful applicant whose logo design will represent the theme year and he was subsequently awarded with the contest’s USD 1000 prize money.
According to Nyoni, his design features ‘the element of hands and different gender symbols reaching towards each other demonstrates the desire of Africa’s young men and women to work together towards harnessing the demographic dividend. The bars that protrude in and out of the African map represent the statistics that prove that the continent is currently experiencing and will continue to experience a youth bulge. Furthermore, the red, green, blue, pink, yellow and black paint splatter denotes youthfulness and conveys the diversity of the people living in African states’. Furthermore he went on to state how winning the contest will impact his life, ‘I am extremely humbled that my work will be featured to a world-wide audience and the prize money will help me realise my dream of launching a multimedia company’.
The logo design contest was launched by H.E. Dr. Martial De-Paul Ikounga, Commissioner of Human Resources, Science and Technology, during the 2016 Africa Youth Day commemoration on the 1st of November. The month long call for submissions attracted over 30 applicants from all corners of the continent. All submission were vetted by a jury of young professionals from the African Union Commission and its partners through transparent sessions that ultimately produced a winner.
The official 2017 AU Theme Logo will feature on communication materials and publications throughout the year and beyond by a wide array of stakeholders.